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Article from our news letter "The Wittering Witch"

The main street through the village of Banks is oddly named RALPHS WIFES LANE and everyone who travels along it for the first time will naturally ask 'who is or was Ralph'? The answer is born out of a chilling local legend which evokes powerful images of perilous times in which shrimp fishermen, desperate to feed their families, risked their lives on the shore. The most probable story is that on a wild night on the mist-shrouded banks of the Ribble, Ralph, a local fisherman, was swept out to sea - never to return. His wife, clinging to the hopes that he was still alive, went in search of him, calling his name in the forlorn hope that he would answer. Her devotion was recognised years later when the lane on which she kept her lonely vigil was renamed after her. While nearby Southport grew as a resort it wasn't until the 70s that the last of the horse-drawn shrimp carts disappeared from the streets of Banks. Shrimping and potato growing were cottage industries where the whole family got involved. The women and girls shelled huge piles of freshly caught and boiled shrimps before they were potted and sold at Lancashire markets. Potatoes and vegetables were also harvested and taken to market by the whole family or pushed on handcarts to the railway station. A different picture emerges now as the major producers such as Flavourfresh have brought a high degree of commercialism to the area and huge lorries transport all manner of produce to supermarkets and wholesalers. The once close-knit community of Banks which joked about needing a passport to cross the Crossens Sluice to get from Southport has been joined by incomers from Preston, Liverpool and Southport to name but a few and the housing stock increased accordingly. The 'family farming community' has lost out to hundreds of migrant workers from Poland and the Eastern European area who move in and out as the seasons demand. Not only is Ralph lost and mourned but a whole way of life in what was a community held together by hardship and pride. Ed.

see also Aprildene for other attractions